24 JANVIER 2017 NEWS: Tengrajan - Bozburun - Hongmen -

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INDE – Tengrajan - The knowledge around Zero had accorded a unique distinction to India in its immense application on Astronomy and Mathematics. But, according to a latest finding, the place of birth of Zero could be Northeast India’s Assam. A piece of half broken stone inscription measuring 15x 9 centimetre had led to the revelation. This stone was discovered in the Tengrajan village of Golaghat district and collected by the Archaeological Society of Assam . It was stored for years in a corner of the Jorhat district museum without any distinction and public attention has now set the national imagination towards discovering the invention and origin of Zero. Zero and its origin has till date been credited to the major Mathematician- Astronomer Aryabhatta who lived around 500 A.D. But, this stone is believed to be 2,300 years old epigraphical noting and the ingenuity of the stone may help to establish with the help of modern dating techniques, then Assam will be in the global centrestage.

TURQUIE - Bozburun - A ceramic sculpture, which is said to be the biggest one in the history of Turkish underwater history, has been discovered off the coast of the Bozburun neighborhood in the western province of Muğla’s Marmaris district. The 2,700-year-old sculpture found during examinations in a ship wreckage, which was unearthed last year in November, belonged to a Cypriot goddess. The works, carried out by Dokuz Eylül University (DEU) Marine Science and Technology Institute, unearthed the sculpture 43 meters under water, and is reported to date back to the archaic period. The institute’s Aegean Research and Application Center (EBAMER) Deputy Director and the head of the excavations, Associate Professor Harun Özdaş, said they only found the lower half of the ceramic sculpture along with ceramic plates and amphoras. Özdaş said they found the ceramic sculpture under piles of sand after long examinations in the wreckage. “When we cleaned its surroundings, we saw the toes of the sculpture. It made us very excited. Then we uncovered the lower part of the body. The goddess sculpture had a dress on it. We know that such sculptures were made of two pieces. This is why we believe that the upper part of the sculpture is in the same place. This unique artifact belongs to a bare-footed woman wearing a long dress. It most probably is a goddess. We believe its original size is 1.20 centimeters. We failed to find the upper part of the sculpture as we had to stop our searches due to weather conditions. According to first impressions, the sculpture and the wreckage date back to the end of 7th century B.C. It most probably belongs to a Cypriot goddess,” he said. “The main load of the wreckage is plates. They scatter around a large field. There are also Cypriot amphoras in the wreckage. Both these finds and the sculpture indicate that the ship was a Cypriot one. The ship, which traveled from the Mediterranean to the Aegean in the archaic era, gives us important information about the relations between Mediterranean civilizations and the Aegean region,” he added.

CHINE – Hongmen - An underwater archaeological mission concluded yesterday in Jiangxi Province, revealing more about a Buddha statue that has emerged from the water of a reservoir. Archaeologists said the Buddha statue, originally spotted by local villagers, is 3.8 meters tall and carved onto a cliff face. The base of a hall was also found under the water, indicating that a temple existed there. Judging from the head’s design, the statue was carved during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), said Xu Changqing, head of the provincial research institute of archaeology. A path was found to the north of the statue, and an inscription with 30 characters was found to the south, according to Li Bin, researcher with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. In front of the statue is the foundation of the hall, covering 165 square meters. Guan Zhiyong, head of Hongmen Township government, said the Buddha statue was built at the intersection of two rivers where boats easily overturned due to the rapid flow. “The ancient people built the statue to pray for safety,” said Guan. County records show the reservoir is located on the ruins of the ancient Xiaoshi Township, an important trade center and hub for water transportation between Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.